Security and Counterterrorism
Paris Prosecutors Determine that September 6th Attack was not anti-Semitic
Paris judicial officials have decided that an attack on three Jewish youths on September 6th in eastern Paris (the same street where a Jewish teenager was beaten in June) did not have anti-Semitic motives. The five suspects were charged with simple voluntary violence. The three young yarmulkes-wearing Jews were attacked after demanding an explanation from…
Dutch minister wants to link crime and ethnicity
Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst has proposed that police and judicial authorities be allowed to register the ethnic background of criminals. At the moment, only the nationality or birthplace of suspects are registered in the Netherlands. Ter Horst said that she believes that this would not create or propagate stigmas of certain ethnic groups, but…
Suspected 9/11 Terrorist Challenges Canadian Detention
A suspected Syrian terrorist who has spent seven years in custody in Canada is claiming that his indefinite detention without charge or trial amounts to cruelty. Hassan Almrei has argued in Canadian Federal court that this lengthy incarceration violates his constitutional rights. Almrei has arrested after September 11, 2001 and is one of five Muslim…
Italian lawyers seek Condoleezza Rice testimony
The lawyers for a former Italian chief of intelligence want to call US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a witness in the trial of 26 Americans charged in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric. Defense lawyer Nicola Madia, who said that Rice’s testimony is significant, considering that she was in charge of the CIA’s…
Belgium hands over suspected terrorist to Spain
Belgian authorities have handed over a leading member of an al-Qaeda linked group to Spain. Spanish police released a statement saying that the arrestee, Algerian national Khaled Abidi, is believed to be a member of the militant Ansar al-Islam group – accused of recruiting Moroccans and Algerians in Spain to fight for al-Qaeda in Iraq….